A literary landmark and the most shocking novel in the English language, William Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ is an exhilarating ride into the darkest recesses of the human psyche.

Meet Bradley the Buyer, the best narcotics agent in the business. Say hello to Dr ‘Fingers’ Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid, and the sadistic, manipulative Dr Benway. And then there’s our narrator, Bill Lee, an Ivy League-educated narcotics addict. This is the story of Bill’s flight south from New York to a drug-and-sex-soaked retreat in Tangiers, where ambiguous Good and enticing Evil vie for the human soul. Welcome to Interzone …

‘Naked Lunch’ is a masterpiece of modern literature by the godfather of the Beat writers: as provocative and mordantly funny today as it was in 1959.

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Review

‘Not a novel but a booty brought back from nightmare, a coldly implacable look at the dark side of our nature.’ New York Times

‘A roller-coaster ride through hell, a safari to the strangest people of the strangest planet – ourselves…sit back and gorge yourself on this feast of a novel.’ J. G. Ballard

‘A delirious exploration of sexual violence through the art of collage.’ Time Out

‘Prophesied with unerring accuracy the hideous modes that human behaviour would assume in the post-apocalyptic second half of the twentieth century. “Naked Lunch” is essential reading for anyone who maintains any illusions about anything.’ Will Self

'Burroughs' voice is hard, derisive, inventive, free, funny, serious, poetic, indelibly American, a voice in which one hears transistor radios and old movies and all the clichés and all the cons and all the newspapers, all the peculiar optimism, all the failure.' Joan Didion

'The only American novelist who may conceivably be possessed by genius.' Norman Mailer

'In the English language, William Burroughs is the greatest writer alive. His imagination has tackled head-on the post-war world, with its huge bureaucracies and sinister complexes. He has a paranoid vision, but as he himself said: the psychotic is someone who knows what's really going on.' J. G. Ballard, Sunday Times

‘William Burroughs broadened people’s conception of what makes humanity. In that way, he really was an American hero, a hero writer, and also just a great man.’ Lou Reed

From the Back Cover

WELCOME TO INTERZONE…

Say hello to Bradley the Buyer, the best narcotics agent in the business. Attend international playboy A.J.'s annual party, where the punch is to be treated with extreme caution. Meet Dr 'Fingers' Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid and his giant centipede, 'The Complete American De-anxietized Man.' And enter the dark and infernal mind of Bill Lee as he pursues his daily quest for the ultimate merchandise…

Provocative, influential, morbidly fascinating, Naked Lunch is an apocalyptic ride through the darker recesses of the human psyche.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence
I CAN FEEL THE HEAT closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train . . .&nbspRead the first page

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This is the kind of book that nobody reads for the plot, because, frankly, there is no plot to speak of, aside from Bill Lee's journey into his own sick and twisted subconscious. And it's all inspired by Burroughs's travels in Tangier. Note to self: avoid Tangier.But all jokes aside, this is a mind-blowing book, but hard to read nonetheless. Nothing makes sense, but in a strange way you can feel that the author wrote all this nonsense with every bit of conviction in his body. It's mesmerizing, that's what it is.Like another reviewer here stated, it's best to read bits of Naked Lunch before bedtime, preferably a chapter at a time. There's nothing to lose because there's nothing you remember the day after anyway! Certain episodes spring to mind, like the man whose ass began to talk Jim Carrey style, taking over his whole body in the most disgusting way possible, but other than that, it's all a blur. I think Burroughs actually succeeded in cleaning my brain of all the toxins, by pouring a ton of metaphorical acid on it. A bit of gamble, I'm sure, but my fried brain is thankful for the experience.

I read this 20 years ago and was frustrated by its inability to fit into my conception of a comprehensible novel.Now what was once its greatest flaw seems to be its greatest asset.It is a collage of sometimes grim scenarios peppered with the odd titbit of medical/anthropological/sociological insight and probably literature's first attempt at abstract impressionism. Obviously not for people with conservative tastes or delicate sensibilities.

Imagine you were able to recall all the weird dreams and nightmares you ever had in clear, vivid detail; taking in sights, smells, feelings, and those odd moments when the dream changes completely, but still - inconceivably, but somehow rationally - connected to the events of the moment before. Imagine you are a hopeless heroin addict, having sleeping and waking dreams compounded by an addict's hallucinations and paranoid excursions, often perceiving things through a trancelike psychosis. Imagine you have a pen in your hand. You've imagined William Burroughs disturbed, distorted and dreamlike prose. You've imagined what Naked Lunch would look and sound like.That's my take on this almost impenetrable novel. It's fairly short by today's standards, but like old fashioned toffee - extremely chewy, time consuming and ultimately frustrating in all but small chunks. If the Naked Chef stripped down recipes to their bare essentials, then Naked Lunch is the complete opposite; a gorge-fest of dense, lyrical prose and vivid images melded together to form a collage around the subjects of addiction, sexual fascination and satire of the medical profession.I gather this book doesn't employ the cut'n'paste narrative experiments of his later work, because with this book there is no coherent narrative. Yes, you could take any of these pages and put them pretty much anywhere and they would still make as much sense. But the cut up method implies a structured (but merely fragmented) narrative as many of us would know it. Naked Lunch is not like this. It is more random, flicking off onto tangents, as dreams do.Does the sum of these Frankenstein parts add up to a meaningful whole? Well, that depends on what you enjoy in a book.Read more ›

It took me several weeks to get into this book: then I got to half-way and suddenly felt comfortable with the style and the remainder got gobbled up in a couple of days. It is a very different "novel", and one which certainly won't appeal to everyone - particularly unsuitable for immature readers or religious fundamentalists of any persuasion. There is extensive explicit reference to heroin use and homosexuality throughout, with an often sadomasochistic or twisted medical angle.

The book's plot is loose to say the least, and the stream of consciousness style caused me great difficulty in the early stages. Once I realised that this was the books strength and started going with the flow, it became much easier to read and was highly enjoyable. Although the subject matter is often disturbing and the characters generally frightening and detestable, the prose is beautiful and often very poetic. Loose concepts such as Interzone, Islam Corp, Dr Benway etc are intimated like pieces of exquisite modern art.

If you think you won't huff and puff due to the references to homosexuality, drugs, casual violence, and florid prose, give this dizzying journey into dark beatnik fantasy a go. And hope you never have a GP called Benway...

I read this book, not knowing much about the author. The cover just drew me to it, (I know, books, covers, you shouldn't judge, but I couldn't help it). When I started reading it I thought, 'what?', but then I just couldn't put it down. I think it's probably a very good insight into the mind of a heroine addict, I can't be 100% sure on that as I am not a heroine addict, and I have to say that this book makes me very glad that I'm not. It is exceptionally dark in places and very grusome, messy even, but there are some very funny bits too. Read it now!